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Do you use a paper planner to organize your life? I’ve used a blank notebook for work, usually one that I get for free as swag, and Google calendar for everything else. I live on my phone. My phone was my lifeline when Spawn was born and I was grasping at straws of sanity. Nowadays I’ve been considering a paper planner again – just like I’d done, back in college. It seems writing things down manually is a sure way for me to remember all the things I have to do.
Paper Planner Life
I’d never heard of Erin Condren until I received a gift card from an event a few years ago. I didn’t think anything of it and ended up giving away the gift card to a friend. Ha! Little did I know there was a huge planner community behind Erin Condren! This brand has tons of prints and you can customize your planner (at a price).
Fast forward to now – where I have more and more to-dos with work and family, and I’m forgetting things. Some people might say I’m juggling too many balls. I don’t know about that. Sounds like a cop-out. Everyone is busy. Who am I to make excuses? (I make choices. You make choices. I do admit, though, that I am extremely sleep-deprived. That, I do not choose to be sleep-deprived.)
So I asked my community. They rallied and recommended their favorites such as:
- Happy Planner
- Passion Planner
- Simplified Planner
- Day Designer
- Inkwell Press Planner
- Erin Condren
- Plum Paper
In the end, I finalized my picks to three paper planners: Simplified Planner, Day Designer and Inkwell Press Planner. My friend Jen has a Simplified Planner, and she said it was very thick. I am ok with that – I just needed something that could be a MacGyver planner – something I could write all my to-dos and stay organized.
The Academic version of the Simplified Planner is supposed to be thinner than the original planner. This was definitely a contender. There was plenty of open spaces and little boxes for notes. Lots of examples here on Instagram.
In the end, budget and timing won out.
Inkwell Press Planner had an “imperfect” sale just a few days ago for their slightly imperfect planners. I was able to order a Classic “Multi Triangle” Academic Year Planner for 40% off! Everything has shuffled in place relatively well – the planner starts off in July through June next year. I can still use a little bit of July to record some notes and milestones.
More examples on how people use this planner on Insta.
Here’s my Snapchat video on my Inkwell Press planner!
Unfortunately the Imperfect Sale is over. However, I’ve read that there may be other “imperfect” sales for other planner companies. Check them out. Contact the brands. You never know when they’ll host a sale!
What’s the point of all this? It’s my goal to use this paper planner to keep track of my to-dos for clients, to basically duplicate events from Google calendar to this planner, to set up my goals for Rodan + Fields and to visually see what I’ve been doing with my days. I intend (see, intentions?) to sync this up with my Power Sheets workbook, too. It doesn’t help if I don’t use the tools, so I’ll update y’all on my status in a month or so!
Tell me – do you use a paper planner? What do you use to organize your days?
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[…] been on a search to find my next paper planner. I started last year and ended up with the Inkwell Planner, which has done right by me. My current planner ends at the end of June. I’m glad there are […]